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Old September 16, 2011, 06:30 PM   #2
BDS-THR
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 12, 2010
Posts: 479
I especially like Chapter 7 that covers leading from definition, cause, prevention and removal. Here's an excerpt:

Quote:
Leading is the number one fear that most non-casters have that prevents them from starting to cast their own bullets. Part of the problem is however, that many of these would-be casters aren't really even sure what "leading" really is, or what causes it; it's just something they've heard, or read, about, and they understand that it can have a negative impact on a gun's accuracy. It is basic human nature to fear the unknown. Some shooters experiment with commercial cast bullets to see how they work and find foreign looking deposits in their barrels and think it must be leading, when in fact it's just residual bullet lube. Sometimes these shooters will experience legitimate leading at intermediate velocities (say 1000 fps or so) and wrongly assume that these deposits would be more severe at higher velocities, and just give up on cast bullets in general. The purpose of this chapter is to define what leading is, what it's root causes are, how a shooter can avoid it, and if afflicted, how a shooter can remove it easily; in short, to dispel the unknown.

Definition of leading. Leading is the deposition of significant amounts of bullet metal on the bore. It can take many forms -- streaks, chunks, splotches, films, etc. (more on this in a minute). It's important to recognize that the mere presence of streaks in the bore is not an indication of leading; many types of bullet lube (especially the commercial hard lubes) leave perfectly innocuous streaks in the barrel that have no negative impact on firearm performance (if a wet patch removes the deposit, it probably wasn't lead). Nor is a gray "haze" on the bore surface necessarily a problem; it can be an indication of a leading problem, but it can also be simply a reflection of the alloy of barrel steel used, how the rifling was cut, or a reflection that the barrel isn't "broken in" yet. The inexperienced cast bullet shooter commonly (and falsely) believes that leading has but a single cause -- the bullet was too soft for the velocity, and lead was stripped off the bullet as it raced down the bore. To this novice shooter, the only solution to leading is to cast the bullet harder, which may solve the problem, but in many cases it won't (and in certain cases it will actually make the leading worse). If the harder bullets don't solve his leading problem, the novice generally walks away thinking that it's impossible to shoot cast bullets without leading a barrel, when in fact the real problem is simply one of misdiagnosis. So let's look at some of the firearm and ammunition issues involved in leading, so our forensic examination of a leaded revolver can provide an accurate diagnosis of the cause.
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